


Courage to Love (R.L)

by obsessedwithrandomthings



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Eventual Fluff, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27336025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsessedwithrandomthings/pseuds/obsessedwithrandomthings
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Reader
Kudos: 25





	Courage to Love (R.L)

You were woken up by a loud knock on your door as you quickly put your dressing robe on and opened it assuming it was an emergency. Remus Lupin stood in front of you, his hair was a mess, fresh scars visible on his face as you sighed internally, thinking about the pain he must’ve endured the previous night during the full moon.

“Students from all the houses are in the Gryffindor common room, there’s alcohol and we need to put a stop to it.” Remus said as he tried is best to focus on your face, and not elsewhere, your robe wasn’t exactly covering up a lot.

You sighed, “I just need to get to get changed, give me like five minutes please?”

“Oh yes take your time, we’re in no rush at all.” You heard Professor Snape’s snarky voice, as he revealed himself, standing beside Remus who immediately stepped closer to you as he covered you up properly, tying the knot of your robe tightly. The close proximity made you swoon, but you reminded yourself that he was only saving you from embarrassing yourself. 

You rolled your eyes, “well since you’re the voice of Slytherin, why do you even need me Professor?”

Before he could respond, Remus looked at you, “just freshen up quickly and we will wait for you here.”

You slammed the door on their faces and got changed as quickly as possible. Remus and you had a weird relationship. On some nights you’d nurse him back to health and tend to his scars, with no words exchanged between the two of you. On other days you’d exchange a wave or a smile, if you were lucky, maybe even a few words.

You knew Remus wasn’t looking for a lover, you had known that for a long while now, you learnt it the hard way.

-

It was your last year at Hogwarts and everyone was busy packing, and you were busy sitting in your dorm room, crying your eyes out.

Sirius eventually found you as he sat on the floor, next to your legs, “I heard about what happened, I’m really sorry.”

You sniffed as you wiped your tears away, “it’s alright, you warned me, so did James, I should have just listened to both of you.”

“What you did was brave, you told Moony how you felt about him and I’m proud of you.”

You put your glasses back on as you finally caught your breath, “why doesn’t he feel the same way?”

Sirius shrugged, “it’s his loss, though. You’re hot and I would definitely date you.” Sirius admits with a wink.

You chuckle and sit down on the floor with him, “thank you but I’m sadly still in love with your best friend who is probably never going to talk to me again.”

“He’s a complicated guy, but maybe someday he’ll have the courage to love.”

-

That day was the last time both of you spoke until he came back to Hogwarts as a professor. That’s when you learnt about him being werewolf, and you couldn’t believe that you hadn’t picked up on it earlier.

And now that you knew, all you wanted to do was help him, despite his protests.

Another knock on the door snapped you out of your thoughts as you fixed your hair and opened the door, “do you have absolutely no patience?” You asked, glaring at Snape as Remus chuckled slightly from beside him.

The three of you walked to the Gryffindor common room where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were already there with all the students, neither of them looked very pleased.

“I cannot believe you would all indulge in underage drinking this close to the year ending, this is absolutely unacceptable.” Professor McGonagall yelled at the students, out of which some of them let out a giggle, earning a well deserved glare from Snape.

You cleared your throat, “how about we confiscate all the alcohol, deduct a few points from their houses, give them a potion to sober up and let them go to bed?” you suggested, looking at professor Flitwick for assistance who nodded in agreement,

“That sounds like a very good idea, Professor Snape can bring the potion from his office, I’m sure.”

Snape stepped forward and looked at you, “they deserve a punishment more severe than this, detention for everyone and no quidditch for the rest of the term.”

All the students started yelling about how unfair he was and none of them were backing down, the liquid courage surely helped them stand up to Snape right now, and as much as you were against underage drinking, you were enjoying this.

Remus finally decided to intervene, he was the student’s favorite and hopefully that would have a long lasting impact, “right – I want everything put aside, I want complete and utter honesty about how many of you actually did drink, we will find out if you lie.” He then looked at Snape, “those who did drink – please give them your potion.” He smiled and looked at the students, “lastly, quidditch will not be cancelled, however you will all get detention for a week.”

The students cheered and thanked him, making you smile. Remus always knew how get his way politely, and that’s what you loved about him. He never felt the need to be aggressive, maybe it was because of his wolf, or maybe that’s just the kind of man he was.

You sat in the corner as everyone deposited the bottles of fire whiskey to you. Remus surprised you by sitting down next to you, as the students kept coming and giving you the bottles.

“Doesn’t this whole thing remind you of Sirius’ 16th birthday?” Remus asked as he picked up one of the bottles, his knee bumping against yours. Even the smallest of things would send shivers down your spine, even though you tried your best to avoid it.

You smiled at the memory and nodded, “I remember being very drunk and you held my hair back for hours while I threw up, and then you stayed with me until I fell asleep.”

“I did, I – I didn’t want to leave you alone like that, especially since that guy – Michael, was it? Yeah, him – he tried flirting with you the whole night, I remember.” Remus said, putting the bottle down, you thought he would leave but he continued to sit there.

You bit your bottom lip and nodded, “I remember him trying to talk to me, but I was too engrossed at trying to get you to notice me.” You chuckled, “I even wore-”

“Red, I remember. I noticed you, I always did.”

Before you could respond, Professor McGonagall came over and sighed in frustration, “potions are all done, they’ve all gone to bed, how many bottles do we have?”

“About 7 empty ones, and 4 unopened ones.” You smirked as an idea popped in your mind and you looked at all your fellow colleagues, “so – the year is ending soon, we should have a little celebration of you own.” You suggested as you held up the bottle of fire whiskey.

Snape scoffed and rolled his eyes, “to think that you would have grown out of your silly antics, clearly I was wrong.”

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, “I mean – it has been a long night and a long year. Plus, professor Lupin is quitting his job so it would be a nice farewell to him.”

You felt a pit form in your stomach and you looked at Remus, “you’re leaving?” He simply nodded, not sure how to respond.

He had spent the last week trying to tell you about it, but he never had the courage to. So, now that it was out in the open, all he could do was nod because he knew he had messed up.

You took a deep breath and looked away from him, “right – shall we all drink then?”

Everyone nodded in agreement as you all headed to Professor McGonagall’s office, which was the biggest one. All of you sat around in a circle, Remus to your left, and Snape with a frown on his face, to your right. Everyone poured themselves a glass and you decided to break the ice,

“Professor Flitwick – you’ve traveled around a lot, did you learn anything exciting in the muggle world? Any drinking games or something?” You asked, taking a sip of your fire whiskey.

He shook is head no, “oh no, I was too busy learning music from the world to indulge in things like these. It does sound like fun though, would you happen to know any?”

You nodded, “not a lot – but the usual truth or dare? That’s what kids mostly play these days anyway.”

“Does it involve the truth potion? Because I will not be bringing that from my cabinet.” Snape said from beside you.

You rolled your eyes, “we don’t need your truth potion, just honesty. We spin a bottle, the person that top bit lands on has to ask the question or give a dare, and the one who the bottom portion lands on, has to answer or do the dare, it’s simple.”

Professor McGonagall clapped her hands together, “this sounds interesting, nothing too crazy though – we are authority figures, let’s not forget that.” Everyone nodded in agreement, as you placed the empty bottle in the middle, and spun it.

“Right so – Severus answers, and Professor Flitwick asks.” You said, looking between the two of them and you could tell Severus was nervous, and you also knew that he would never pick truth, he was a private man and this group clearly wasn’t the one he would open up to.

“Dare.” Knew it.

Professor Flitwick nodded, “very well then, I dare you to walk into your class tomorrow and say, ‘I wish I was a Ravenclaw, because they are indeed the smartest’ and you can’t tell them it was a dare, you have to keep that up for your whole class, and compliment every student from my house at least once and be incredibly polite to them.”

You looked at him surprised, “professor – that is actually so bloody brilliant, I’ll be there to supervise.”

“This game is ridiculous – but I’ll do it.” Snape admits as he spins the bottle again, this time, professor McGonagall answers and you ask.

A smirk forms on your lips, “brilliant – truth or dare, Professor?”

“Truth, it seems easier.” She said, shrugging a little, clearly looking nervous. Back when you were a student, Sirius and you spent most of your time serving detention with her.

You hummed a little and tapped your chin, “back when I was in my 6th year and a similar incident had happened, is it true that you took the blame for Sirius and me when Dumbledore asked about the fire whiskey? Because we knew that he knew but we never got punished for it, always seemed very suspicious.”

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and glanced at Remus for a second before telling the truth, “well – it wasn’t me. Professor Dumbledore had made it very clear that whoever got those in, would have to retake at least two of their final exams. So, Professor Lupin took the fall.”

Your head immediately snapped towards Remus, “why would you do that?”

Remus shrugged, “Sirius and you weren’t doing very well in Herbology and Potions, so I just thought retaking would be a lot of pressure and I didn’t want you – either of you to go through that.”

You looked away and spun the bottle again, this time the question landed on Severus and answer on Remus and for some reason, you felt nervous about it. You knew they never got along well, and there was a good chance this wouldn’t end well.

Snape smirked, “truth or dare, Lupin?”

“Truth.”

“Who was the last woman you were in love with?” Snape asked, the smirk never leaving his face.

You felt bad for Remus, but you were very curious. Clearly Severus knew something you didn’t, did Remus find someone after Hogwarts? Was he still with her? Was he married? Did he have kids?

“You know who it is, don’t make me say it.” Remus responded as he glared at Snape. Before Snape could respond, you spoke up,

“I want to know, who was it?”

Remus sighed as he stood up, “I’m done with this silly game, I – I have to leave early tomorrow.” Without saying anything else, he left the room.

“It’s you – how do you not know this?” Snape asks from beside you, “all through school, all he did was look at you, protect you, I thought you always knew.”

You shook your head no and Professor McGonagall decided to chime in from opposite you, “I thought you both were together, actually. He always made extra notes for you when you didn’t show up to classes.”

“No, that was Lily…right?”

She shook her head no, “it was him, as far as I remember.”

You stood up from your chair, this has been fun but I need to go. They all nodded and said their goodbyes as you rushed to find Remus. You knocked on his office door, hoping he was there. He opened the door and without thinking twice you wrapped your arms around his neck as you hugged him. His hands immediately went to your waist as he pulled you inside, slamming the door shut behind him.

You pulled away as you leaned back on the door, his hands still on your waist. Slowly, you ran your fingers on the scar that covered his face, “this time I don’t have Sirius to tell me how hot I am, so respond accordingly.” You let out a soft chuckle, “I still love you, I never stopped loving you and I don’t think I’ll ever stop either.”

“What if I told you that Sirius could tell you how hot you are?” Remus asked, leaning way from you, much to your dismay. You looked at him confused, and he continued, “he’s innocent – it was Peter, who is still alive.”

“Can I see him?”

Remus nodded, “tomorrow we can go visit him, he’s hiding but I do know the possible places he could be at, so we’ll just have to find him.”

“I can’t believe it.” You said, as you sat down on his desk, and Remus walked towards you, reminding you about your confession earlier. You sighed and looked at him, “look I’m sorry about earlier, clearly you’ve had a lot going on, just like you did back when we were 17 and I just end up blurting these things at the wrong moments.”

Remus carefully stepped closer as he stood between your legs, putting his hands on them and just looked at you, not saying anything.

You cleared your throat, “you know, it’s rude to stare.”

“And it’s rude to look that hot.” He flirted, leaning into you. You could feel the butterflies in your stomach, and this time around you weren’t going to push them away.

Heat rose to your cheeks, “I thought it was Sirius’ job to remind me that I’m hot?”

Remus shook his head no, “I am officially taking it upon myself to remind you how beautiful and hot you are, every single day – for the rest of our lives.”

“This is finally happening then – we are finally happening?” You questioned, looking into his eyes, the eyes that you could stare into for eternity if you had to.

He nodded, “I’m sorry it took me so long, you didn’t deserve any of this.” He held your hands in his fairly large ones, “but I want you to know that I loved back when we were younger, I still love you and I will always love you.”

You couldn’t take it any longer, you held his face in your hands and placed a kiss on his lips. It was hungry and desperate, both of you had waited far too long for this moment. He pulled you closer as you wrapped your legs around his waist and he lifted you up with ease, moving you over to the couch.

You pulled away panting, “I can’t believe this is finally happening.”

“Do you want to spend the night with me? I mean – we could just talk? I could tell you about everything that has happened?” he asked shyly as he played with his fingers.

You nodded, “I’d love that, as long as we can snog a little.” You admit, pulling him in for another kiss, you could never get enough of him.

“Oh there will be plenty of that, I promise.”

Both of you laid down together as you spend the whole night talking and snogging, not to mention the fact that Remus profusely apologized throughout the night for not having done this sooner. He held you close as you fell asleep in his arms, both of you thinking about how this was the start of something you had both yearned for.

–

Remus keeps his promise as you both walk towards a shabby hut in a forest, Sirius Black standing outside with his arms wide open as you run into them quickly. He stumbles back a little as he lets out a laugh,

“Moony are you sure you don’t mind your girl in my arms?” Sirius teases, as you smack his arm lightly.

You look at Remus and smile, “he has nothing to worry about, because I’m going to be in his arms all night long.”

Sirius pulled you into another hug, “I told you he’d have the courage to love someday, didn’t I?”

You nodded, “you did. I honestly thought it would take another decade.”

“I was thinking a little over that, or maybe 15 years?” Sirius questioned, immediately jumping in on teasing Remus, just like you both always did.

“Hey, you don’t know me, I could have done it sooner – I was just waiting for the right moment, that’s all.” Remus said shrugging as Sirius and you burst out laughing. You walked over to Remus as you placed a quick kiss on his lips,

“Jokes aside, I’m just glad you’re here with me, both of you.” You admitted, looking at Remus and Sirius.

Sirius smiled, “I have to go now, look after Harry for me at Hogwarts – okay? And look after Moony too – especially on the tougher nights.” He then turned towards Remus, “and you better look after this woman and thank your stars she never fell for me.”

Remus threw his head back as he laughed, “I’ll make sure I never let her go, we’ll see you very soon – okay?”

Sirius nodded as he walked away from the two of you. You sighed and looked at Remus, “thank you for this. Do you want to grab some dinner together? Our first date?”

He nodded as he placed a kiss on your forehead, “I have a lot of dates to make up for, so let’s begin.”


End file.
